Good point regarding the flash etc., Thanks for sharing, I didn't think of that.

I used to like bloatware before but then my life also had a lot of bloatware, now a simpler life
and a simpler PC is more peaceful. Zen and the art of Retro PC

For those interested in frugal living, The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn is a
must read. It is an old book but quite valuable.

I used to work in a building with serveral offices before. Whenever one company closed,
I had a coworker who used to dumpster dive in that area and found servers, pcs and
other accessories. Even if an older PC doesn't work, atleast it can be used for parts,
alternatively, if the parts are not needed, they can be sold online. This means lesser trash
to landfill. Retro PC Clubs and parties are really needed to promote these ideas. Or atleast
Local Retro Online forums. Stores that sell new PCs may not like this idea, but they can also get
into selling retro PCs, this will help the Earth.

It helps to be on the lookout for cheap ethernet cards and PCI USB plug cards, grab what is
possible when it becomes available. This will help down the road. Wish I had all this info. before, I could have atleast used my old Pentium 1 PC as a juke box and for wordprocessing instead of just trashing it.

The one thing I will admit about older PCs is that transportation is a pain unless one has a car.
It is much simpler to carry a netbook or a tablet from the store, when relocating etc., than an older PC. Also, these are more powerful.

Local store is selling used Pentium 3 Desktops for 35 bucks:
http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...eaturedAdZtrue

This is one day only sale. Guess they are offering this as they are getting newer stock of better used PCs.

This experience tells me that it is vital to check used stuff ads online early in the morning. What a deal indeed, good especially for spare parts like ethernet card etc.,

Those are pentium 4 and I would have Antix on em. I have a IBM M41 with same ram and pentium specs with 2 internal ide hard drives booting 4 Linux distros and is a media center in my motorcycle shop.

Boots, VL7 Standard Gold, Semplice, Antix, and Macpup. It is just a freebee test bed I play with in the shop.

Edit: Flash 11 plays OK and wireless works out of the box also with a pendrive g wireless.

Any thoughts on #OU-129 on this page ? This is another local good deal:
http://www.dantech.ca/?q=15--

It comes with just a CD Reader as per the site which is a concern.

I bought a shuttlebox asus motherboard, dual core amd, 2gig ram, with nvidia gforce 512MB gaming card and dvdrw and 320gig sata drive
off ebay from a gamer looking to update his gaming rig for $150.00. No operating system/wiped. That was about a couple of years ago.

Before that (about a year and a half previous), I bought a IBM M57 server dual core intel, 2gig ram, 80 gig sata drive, dvdrw ,onboard intel graphics chip, for
$169.00 off of ebay. No Operating System/wiped. One can find good deals if you just take some time.

I can upgrade the gaming rig graphics card, and I think the processor to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

for the price you are showing in your links. That is including the price I paid for the rig.

The Shuttle Box PC I have looks like this

The IBM M57 looks and
Specs on IBM I have

I know Canada and the USA might have price and availability differences. I don't even know if you have
this in Canada which can be ordered site to local store for local pickup for free shipping.

Cheapo bullet proof low spec Laptop I own is this

Pic

Pentium 4, 512MB ram,(capable of 2gig ram), Hot Swap Hard Drives running Antix, Puppy, VL 7 Std Gold. I bought that off ebay and 2 others that were rt 686 models for a average of $25.00 a piece. I scrounged up CDRW and CDROM drives with caddies, extra battery (uses a duracell in the caddy that costs 9 bucks. Extra power supply and also figured out how to adapt a generic 19v compaq power brick to work on these also. I am kinda famous for reviving these laptops

.

I uploaded the bios floppy upgrade image for him since he is in Australia.

I did not see any Amrel Toughbooks on Ebay but There are Plenty of Itronix and Panasonic ones there and they are all Linux firendly

I could find Itronix ones though.Stay away from the ITRONIX 6450+ unless you just like the challenge as they are lower spec than the go book series. I know you could get Tiny Core going on it using a external cdrom drive (I even have a pcmcia cdrom drive) and a PLOP boot floppy or Smart Boot Manager Floppy (for pcmcia boot).

I think I covered those floppies in my previous post in my links.

We have a lot of old ruggedized laptops (GeTAC) where I work, I hang on to even the P3 ones and use them as thin clients for public kiosks. Only caveat is watch out for the ones with rubberized keyboards: they're utter misery to type on.

The PC I am talking about at the dantech site is in the bottom right hand corner, it cosst 50 bucks and is the last one.

I never got into eBay as there are shipping, custom fees(if shipped from US to here etc.,) These add to the cost. Moreover, one needs to be at home for accepting the delivery and it gets very complicated. They never say the exact time of delivery, make one wait a long time and don't showup when waiting, this adds to the delivery trouble. This is with UPS. Fedex is a lot better. So, I just decided to purchase local as much as possible. Down the road, these few hundred dollars here and there don't matter as There will be better PCs always in the future.

I have never seen the one like you got before, I am glad you get good deals on eBay. I wanted to Reply with quote but, unable to do so on the last page of this thread as it shows me as not logged in, that is one of the issues of this older browser for sure. But I can live with it.

EDIT: I have never been online so long in a very long time. This thread is a great eye opener for sure. I try to keep my uptime as low as possible usually, even at 10 mts per day sometimes.

I wish to try and learn more from others here. So please answer the following questions:

1. What is the oldest computer you have ever had ?
2. How do you get rid of your old IT stuff ?
3. What are the most vital features of your new PC that you like and use ?
4. What is the oldest PC you have now ?

Thank You.

Vijay

4. What is the oldest PC you have now ?

1992 DECpc 333sx LP - Debian Slink

http://books.google.com/books?id=hVE...page&q&f=false

The link shows one similar except mine had Win 3.11 for Work Groups, network card and 12 megs of ram.

1998 Panasonic CF -01 DOS/Win95 Pen Computer with dock.

http://pencomputing.com/frames/textblock_pana_cf01.html

1. AMD 5x86. Not sure of the speed.
2. I am lucky enough to work in an IT department, so I take it to my job and throw it in the pile of equipment we're recycling.
3. Good monitor. Seriously, nowadays this is BY FAR the most important thing for me. I can barely tell the difference between my laptop that is 5 generations old and my newish 6-core 16 GB desktop as far as performance in most applications, but the difference in the quality of the screen is astounding.
4. Dell XPS M1330. Core 2 Duo T8300/4GB/60 GB.

Wow, amazing indeed. Tells me even more that I must not have discarded my Pentium 1 or even my i386 for that matter. Also, as an aside, I also discarded my older modems now I recollect. I preferred zoom external modems, I had teh 14.4k first, then got the 28.8k when it came and finally the 56k. The moment I got the new one, I just discarded the older one. I also discarded a brother LJ printer as I couldn't get toners for it anymore and also had to change the drum kit. It became too much of a hassle.

Some folks may think that this thread feels like being in a Ghost Town. (Google for Ghost Town Gallery if interested in those.)

Nice and lucky that you have IT recycling at work. Thanks for sharing. I prefer my monitor uncomfortable, this means lesser time online, infront of PC and more time in real life.

I guess there is pressure at local used PC stores to sell the P4s. More ads in this regard:

http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...eaturedAdZtrue

3615 Rue Ontario Est, Montréal, QC H1W 1R8, Canada

Also, here is another at a much lower price of $29, they have a lot and are forced to sell as per the add:
http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...AdIdZ463415949

It is interesting to watch this race to the bottom and the cheapest transactions for Desktops. The only thing is that these seem to have the DVD writer removed as they seem to be fetching a good price on their own separate. With DVD writer, these systems are more expensive. However, can't blame these resellers, their prices are so low, they need to try and make the best of what they have. Will be too much to expect a desktop from them for 5 bucks, but who knows, if they have a real old one in the back collecting dust, they may offer it at that price. Only a personal visit can confirm this.

This store offers a more complete system for $60, but appears it is just a DVD reader:
(5172 CHEMIN QUEEN MARY MONTREAL QC H3W1X5) FACE METRO SNOWDON
http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...AdIdZ463416935

One another great aspect of buying a used PC locally is that it is more green, supports local business and if it is purchased at a used goods shop that helps the poor,
then it supports the local poor also. So, this is quite good then in many respects.

Most of the net is filled with porn, gaming, gambling etc., They indulge our minds in excess with these things and then it becomes a habit eventually. Having an older PC with a text only browser and using other devices for reading, listening to music or watching movies, playing games etc., helps avoid this trap. Then, one gets more free time that is available for other things as everything is done in moderation due to having different devices for different tasks. With time newer, better behaviour is developed that results in a lot lesser uptime. This is one my main personal benefits of having an older PC.